Quote:
Originally Posted by Jebby
What was the point in demolishing the bank if they aren't going ahead with the project anyway? Wouldn't it make more sense to continue collecting rent for another 1-3 years than leaving the lot vacant?
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I don't think they anticipated not going ahead....although its not like we did not know the BC NDP would win.
As for too many projects already in the pipeline, the thing is all these years, downtown Vancouver hasn't really been building that much office space to begin with, so all indicators are commercial developers must catch up. Even those underconstruction today, are still underconstruction, so we haven't really had any significant office space increase since Bentall V.
The frustrating thing about this is any further delay on office building projects mean that by the time the BC NDP is gone, we will be in another situation were office vacancy is tight once again, making doing business in Vancouver prohibitively expensive. There has to be a healthy amount of inventory. With Telus, MNP, Bentall stub, pretty much leased up, the only big project were you can get some allowance is Nordstrom (the Rogers arena ain't that much).
So its a never ending cycle of office tightness. While this may seem good for landlords, if tenants have no where to set up shop downtown, where would they go? To those high vacant sprawling office parks in the burbs. Now who would want that?
Just look at Calgary. The developer of Eight Avenue Place too a huge gamble, building a million square feet despite the Bow and other office towers being built at the same time. No tenants lined up, nada. But because their building was available, other companies that needed to set up shop was able to find space in their building just when it was finished. So despite the tightness of office space in Calgary, the supply is able to keep up with demand.
This particular building ain't exactly as big as Eight Avenue Place...I'm sure this would land tenants even with the BC NDP (for all we know, this could end up a government building).....as long as its built.